Dream Team: Conor Dwyer and Kelsey Merritt dive deeper beyond swimming and modeling by helping save the oceans from being ruined by plastic.

What do you have in common as a model and an athlete?

Conor Dwyer: Both fitness and nutrition play a big role in our lives that we share by being active and adventurous, somewhat staying in a healthy diet and a workout regimen. She’s in fashion, I love sports fashion. That’s why I think Bench made sense to me. They’ve done a great job in integrating both street fashion style with active.

Kelsey Merritt: What I love about being with Conor is that he’s so dialed in with being healthy and I wasn’t. I learned a lot about nutrition and being influenced by an Olympic athlete to go to the gym every day cause I see him go every day.

Do you help each other diet?

Kelsey: Up until I met him, I had a really bad diet. My main concern was sweets. I still eat sweets, but not as much as I did.

Conor: When she’s prepping for a show, she cuts out sugar, fried food and dairy. We still eat sushi and rice bowls twice a week. Fruit smoothies — a lot of smoothies. She likes oatmeal now. I throw in peanut butter, banana and strawberry. We’re also versatile travelers. I love trying food from around the world.

Conor: She’s done well in her industry and I’ve done well in my industry. You don’t hear us talk about it too much. We have stuff outside our jobs that we love to do together. We just love being together.

Kelsey: In the past year I’ve been active in trying to use less plastic. I told Conor about it when we met.

Conor: Now I’m with a brand that’s coming out hopefully next year, an alternative to plastic. A nutrition tech company producing non-plastic pods that dissolve in water. They’re gonna have utensils like chopsticks just dissolve in water in seven minutes. She turned me on to how the element I love, the oceans, are being ruined by plastic. I took a deep dive into it and realized this is something that’s ruining our planet.

Kelsey: I have a following here and the Philippines is a top five contributor to plastic in the oceans. I cannot use plastic by myself but that’s not gonna change the world so I try to spread awareness. We’re going to Palawan, Siargao and Boracay. Hopefully, we can include beach clean-ups in our itinerary.

Conor: And just dive and see the reefs. It’s my first time in the Philippines!

Dream goal to fulfill, aside from more Olympic gold medals and the Victoria’s Secret show?

Conor: I’d like to achieve what my parents have instilled in me which is having a family down the road. My parents have been happy together for 35 years. Family is a key thing for me and having them around me, both in the workspace of my non-plastic business, and working as hard as I can like I did in swimming and supporting Kelsey. She’s just getting started. We also have a dog already — Pablo, he’s a five-month-old English bulldog. Kelsey got it for me for Christmas. Water is also his element. He gets in the bathtub with me!

Kelsey: I’d love to walk a designer show like Prada or Chanel or do a campaign for these designers or be on a Vogue cover.

Conor: We’d like to give back to the world in some way, whether it’s my sport or the environment.

Who are your icons?

Conor: I grew up in Chicago, so Michael Jordan, the basketball player. I played basketball in grade school and high school.

Kelsey: Giselle Bundchen, Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford — OG supermodels. The GOATs (Greatest Of All Time).

What qualities did you like about each other?

Conor: A lot of qualities. I still remember the day we first met in Costa Rica. What I cherish about Kelsey is I never hear her say anything negative about anyone. She’s sweet and kind on the inside of her insane beauty.

Kelsey: Bolero. (Laughs)

Conor: I kind of chased her down.

Kelsey: I found out he’s Catholic and that’s important for me. His family’s the best. Coming from the Philippines, I didn’t feel very foreign to him. Our family shared the same values. We both come from big families. I have four siblings. My mom’s side, she has seven siblings.

Conor: My family is four boys and one girl, same as Kelsey. I have a lot more cousins than her.

Conor, have you met Kelsey’s family?

Conor: I watched the Victoria’s Secret fashion show with her family in New York, then we had breakfast this morning. They’re sweethearts. She’s been to Toky

Kelsey: He’s the best supportive boyfriend. He lets me flourish.